The present invention was prompted by the fact that, as far as is known, no valve or valve assembly has been developed for attachment to the underside of a sprinkler head which enables fluid flow through the valve to be remotely controlled. There are, however, sprinkler heads available which have a remote control valve built into the side of the sprinkler head. Two examples of these are the Rainbird Model 91DR available from Rainbird Sales Inc. of Glendora, California and the Toro Model No. 690 available from the Toro Co. of Riverside, California.
The problem with incorporating a remotely controllable valve into the sprinkler head is that it makes it unnecessarily expensive to remotely control an existing (i.e. non-remotely controlled) irrigation system since each existing sprinkler head in an irrigation system must be replaced with a remotely controlled sprinkler head such as one of those available from Toro or Rainbird. It would be much more economical if an irrigator could simply attach a remotely controllable valve to each of the existing sprinkler heads in the irrigation system. Accordingly, it would be highly desirable if an inexpensive, remotely controlled, fluid flow control valve were available that could be used with most existing, commercially available sprinkler heads.